Current Affairs Quiz-September, 2020

Notes:
Noted film actor and theatre artist Paresh Rawal has been appointed chairperson of National School of Drama (NSD).
The former BJP Member of Parliament, will succeed the present Chairman Arjun Deo Charan. Paresh Rawal, has been awarded with Padma Shri in 2014. The NSD is India’s premier institute for theatre students and is located at Delhi.

Notes:
Veteran Social activist and former Haryana MLA Swami Agnivesh has recently passed away in Delhi, after he was suffering from liver cirrhosis.
Swami Agnivesh was considered as a revolutionary leader of Arya Samaj and had led a campaign against bonded labour and female foeticide. He was also an advocate for the dialogue between religions.

Notes:
Union External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar virtually addressed the inaugural session of the intra-Afghan talks, being held in Doha.
Earlier this week, the Minister had visited Iran and discussed the Chabahar port project and the situation in Afghanistan. The Defence Minister also met his counterpart in Iran. India had earlier attended the signing of the US-Taliban pact on February 29.

Notes:
The Carpet Export Promotion Council (CEPC) was established by the Ministry of Textiles in 1982, to promote export of Carpets and other allied Products from India.
Recently, CEPC was in news as the organization has announced a three-day virtual Buyer-Seller Meet. The programme is to focus on Australia and adjoining countries, as India is the biggest exporter of handmade carpets to those countries.

Notes:
British Racing Driver Lewis Hamilton has recently clinched his 90th Formula One win after winning the Tuscan Grand Prix Tournament.
Valtteri Bottas reaced within 1.1 seconds of Hamilton and finished second while Red Bull driver Alexander Albon finished third and clinched his first career podium. Hamilton can equal Schumacher’s record of victories at the Russian Grand Prix, as he is one win behind Schumacher.

Notes:
According to the Asian Development Bank, Asia’s economy will contract for the first time since the early 1960s.
The bank had earlier projected that the GDP would grow by 0.1 per cent. Now, it is estimated that Asia’s GDP would decline by 0.7 per cent in 2020 and would increase to 7.7 per cent in 2021. It also highlighted that the GD in India would contract by 9% this year.

Notes:
National Engineers Day is celebrated on September 15 across the country, to mark the birth anniversary of eminent engineer M Visvesvaraya.
Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya was born on September 15, 1861 in Karnataka. He served as the Chief engineer in Mysore and had contributed to several technical projects in Hyderabad, Mysore, Maharashtra and Odisha, including the block system of irrigation in the Deccan canals.

Notes:
The Lok Sabha has passed the Salary, Allowances and Pension of MPs (Amendment) Bill, 2020.
The Bill would reduce the salaries of Members of Parliament by 30 % for a period of 1 year to meet the exigencies arising out of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this year, the government had brought an ordinance in this regard.

Notes:
Kerala State Electronic Development Corporation (Keltron), owned by the Government of Kerala, is set to manufacture commercially available Ventilators.
The corporation has signed a pact with Society for Bio Medical Technology (SBMT) under the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) for technical expertise in ventilator production.

Notes:
India’s Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has exited from Sudan after the country has refused to pay for oil it lifted from the fields.
The overseas investment arm of the state-owned oil company, ONGC Videsh (OVL) along with its Chinese partner CNPC and Malaysia’s Petronas have withdrawn from the oil fields. The African country had not paid USD 430.69 million for the Oil it bought from the block since 2011.